Following Christ

Following Christ is Charles Spurgeon’s practical call to active discipleship and Christian service, originally published as We Endeavor for members of the Young People’s Society of Christian Endeavor. Its governing question is what it actually means to follow Christ after professing faith in him. Spurgeon refuses to separate receiving Christ as Savior and Friend from receiving him as Master. Discipleship therefore becomes a life of willing service: using present opportunities, gifts, strength, speech, and resources for Christ rather than waiting for ideal circumstances or some imagined future usefulness.

Christian service is the book’s dominant practical emphasis. Spurgeon repeatedly encourages ordinary believers to begin with what God has already placed in their hands. The chapters on talents, harvest, the body working together, present urgency, speaking openly, providence, and the lad’s loaves all reinforce the same principle: usefulness does not depend on possessing impressive resources. Faithfulness means putting what one has at Christ’s disposal and trusting God for the result. The book consequently addresses readers who ask, “How can I serve God when I feel inadequate?”, “What can I do with small gifts?”, “Should I wait until I am more prepared?”, and “How do I become useful in God’s work?”

Faith in God and dependence on the Holy Spirit keep this activism from becoming self-reliance. Spurgeon teaches that believers cannot accomplish spiritual work merely by natural energy. The Spirit gives help for service, while faith acts on the conviction that God can do what human weakness cannot. God’s providence also frames Christian work: opportunities, limitations, coworkers, delays, and outcomes are not outside his rule. The believer’s responsibility is faithful action, not control of results.

Several chapters develop the inner spiritual life that makes such service fruitful. Spurgeon’s teaching on the vine stresses that fruit comes from living union with Christ, not from an externally attached profession. A believer must be vitally joined to Christ and draw life from him if service is to bear genuine spiritual fruit. His treatment of the “tender grapes” and “little foxes” from the Song of Solomon applies special care to young believers, warning against influences that damage early spiritual life and urging closeness to Christ and to the church. This gives the book a strong concern for perseverance, spiritual fruitfulness, and growth as well as outward work.

The Word of God has an active role in ministry. In the chapter built on Jeremiah 23:29, Spurgeon presents Scripture as God’s fire and hammer: divine truth has power to expose falsehood, convict the conscience, break hard hearts, and shape servants for God’s use. Evangelistic witness therefore depends not on cleverness alone but on speaking God’s truth. The church likewise matters because Christian service is cooperative. Believers labor as members of one body and should value the contributions of others rather than imagining that any one worker completes the whole task.

The controlling motive is God’s glory. Service is not a path to personal importance but the joyful vocation of Christ’s servants. Following Christ therefore connects discipleship, stewardship, evangelism, faith, the Holy Spirit, union with Christ, fruitfulness, the Word of God, the church, and providence into one practical vision: follow Christ by serving him now, with what he has given, in the strength he supplies, for the glory that belongs to God.